Thune, GOP blast Dems in DHS standoff as Lankford says they fear ICE over Iran
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., accused Senate Democrats of not having "any excuses" to continue blocking Homeland Security funding as Republicans and the White House continue to make repeated offers to reopen the government.
"The opportunity to actually drive this to a conclusion is there," Thune said at a press conference on Saturday in response to Fox News Digital. "You have to have, obviously, to negotiate a deal, you got to have two sides at the table. The White House is there, Senate Republicans are there. The question is, are Senate Democrats going to take yes for an answer?"
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entered its 36th day of shutdown as Senate Democrats continue to block funding for the agency in their pursuit of reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
After more than two weeks of negotiations appearing to have stalled, Democrats responded to the White House’s latest offer. That spurred two face-to-face meetings with Senate Republicans and Trump administration officials, including border czar Tom Homan, on Capitol Hill.
The latest meeting, which wrapped on Friday, saw Republicans offer Senate Democrats a compromise DHS funding bill.
Thune said the meeting went well and hoped the parties will meet again over the weekend. He characterized the GOP’s offer as filled "with a lot of reforms that have been requested and asked for by Democrats."
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It comes as lines at airports snake for blocks, tens of thousands of federal workers go without pay, and concerns about increased threats in the U.S. as the Pentagon continues Operation Epic Fury against the Iranian regime.
Still, Thune and the GOP have grown increasingly frustrated with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats’ unwillingness to engage in negotiations over the last several weeks.
"We have the Department of Homeland Security closed right now because apparently my Democratic colleagues are more afraid of ICE than they are of Iran and the challenges that we face now in the conflict internationally that we know that we have threats back in the homeland," Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said at Saturday's press conference.
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Republicans tried and failed for a fifth time to fully reopen the agency on Friday. In the background, there have been several attempts by Senate Democrats to move forward with standalone funding bills to open parts of DHS, excluding immigration enforcement.
The Senate will have a full vote on a standalone funding bill for the Transportation Security Administration, pushed by Schumer, later on Saturday. It will likely fail, given Republicans’ position that the department should be completely reopened.
"I know they think it's, as has been described by one of their leaders, ‘very serene, very serene’ with their position," Thune said. "Well, I'm telling you something, the people who are sitting in those lines at the airports right now don't see it as very serene. This needs to be resolved. We need a result."
In a Truth Social post later Saturday, President Donald Trump threatened to deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports if Democrats did not accept a deal. He said ICE would handle airport security and immediately arrest illegal immigrants coming into the U.S., with a special focus on Somalians.